The MEO arena's capacity of 15,000 was nowhere near sufficient in size for the 50,000 ticket holders which were hoping to attend the first event of the gathering. Thousands were left outside to watch it all unfold on a big screen outside the arena.

It has been reported that some people were literally fighting to gain entry into the event with some climbing fences to do so.

'Late late' ticket holders had paid in excess of €5,000 for a chance to attend the Summit.

And the disappointment did not stop there.

Oh god... Paddy Cosgrave is doing a "Look how the wifi is working" thing on stage, but it's not working. Awks. #websummit

Issues with the Wi-Fi were also reported. Even founder Paddy Cosgrave himself experienced the mishap when he attempted a Facebook live demo on stage.

The Summit is in its sixth year, expanding from 400 to 50,000 attendees in that time. After five increasingly successful years in Dublin, the world's largest technology event decided to leave Ireland behind, only to make Lisbon its home in a bid to improve the quality of the event.

First reviews of #WebSummit seems to be huge queues, over crowded, and wifi fails (even for Paddy on stage). So situation normal then :P

Úna Harty

Úna is a Limerick hun who refers to everyone as either gal or pal. Despite the fact that she’s studying Nanoscience she loves a bitta theatre, a bitta writing and a bitta Gaeilge. You’ll find her in The George most nights of the week covered in glitter trying to keep the Harty Party going. Her diet mainly consists of chocolate, pizza and popcorn.